Improvement in the manufacture of artificial fuel



' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEO CHARLES SAFFRAY, NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 55,367, dated June 5, 1866.

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, CHARLES SAFFRAY, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Artificial Fuel; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same.

This invention consists in a new and improved process for aggregating coal-dust or waste coal by mixing the same cold with pitch or rosin reduced to a fine powder, in such a manner that when the mass is compressed and slightly heated the pitch or rosin fuses and forms a cement which firmly unites the particles of coal, and a fuel is obtained which can be used with great advantage in locomotive or other steam-boiler furnaces or in any furnace where a steady and powerful heat is desired.

In carrying out my process, I mix coal-dust or waste coal with a powder made as follows: Equal parts of common pitch or rosin and 'of powdered coal are melted and mixed together. When cold the mass is brittle and easily reduced to a fine powder. This powder I mix with the coal-dust or waste coal in about the following proportions: coal-dust, one hundred parts; powder of rosin or pitch and coal, from four to ten parts. I then add eight parts by weight of water, either pure or containing in solution some mucilaginous or gelatinous substance, together with one per cent. of common salt or of nitrate of soda. The whole is thoroughly mixed and then pressed into molds by a machine powerful enough to make the particles adhere. The blocks thus formed are dried at a temperature suflicient to soften the pitch, rosin scattered through the mass, and when cold the blocks are hard and sonorous, like bricks. By this means a fuel is obtained which produces a powerful and steady heat, and which can be made at a trifling expense.

Having thus described my invention, what 'I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The within-described process ofaggregating coal-dust or waste coal, by first producing a powder of pitch orrosin and coal-dust, which is mixed cold with the coal to be aggregated, and after having been subjected to a suitable pressure, is dried, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. The product obtained by treating coaldust or Wastecoalin the manner-above specified.

OH. SAFFRAY, .M. D. 1

Witnesses:

WM. F. MCNAMARA, ALEX. F. ROBERTS. 

